At a networking event last week I met a lovely woman who was excited to hear I train on social media. When I asked why, she said every time she goes to a trade meeting, she’s told she’s missing out by not using (fill in the blank). Â First it was LinkedIn, then it was Facebook, then it was Twitter. What’s next? I have to tell you, I hate hearing this. Â Embracing social media for social media’s sake is just not what it is about. You have to understand who your customers are and where they are looking for information. Â Then be there. It sounds too simple but that’s how it is. Â I know there are stories in every industry about someone making it big through Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever. But I will guarantee for every one of those incredible success stories there are many […] Continue reading
Facebook and Business Contacts
Gave a talk in Akron last week that ended with the typical question and answer session. Â One of the questions was how to handle inviting business associates to be friends on Facebook. Â I will confess – I don’t allow business associates to be friends on Facebook. Â That is just for my friends. That isn’t to say some of my business contacts don’t become friends because they do and we are friends on Facebook. But if I met you through a business relationship, I will never initiate being friends on Facebook. Â Mostly I do this because I talk about personal stuff on Facebook as do my friends. It isn’t stuff I would “hide” from business associates, but much of it isn’t stuff they would care about. So, for this woman, we all did a little digging. Why do you want to be friends with clients on […] Continue reading
Using Technology to Refine Your Message
A friend of mine does the “education minute” for our BNI chapter. Â He does a great job and often makes one think about things in a new way. Last week, he recommended when we ask for referrals, we run it through the “Google” test. In other words, if you are asking someone for a referral, can you enter that request into Google or Bing and get a small number of targeted results, or would you get thousands of unrelated results? That got me thinking, how else can you use today’s technology to test out your messages? There’s nothing like doing it for real, but can you communicate your value proposition in 140 characters? My experience on Twitter is I often don’t use all 140 characters. And the value in the communication is still there thank you. There’s discussion as to who really said it, but […] Continue reading